You’re entitled to a refund for a canceled flight due to weather. However, if you don’t take the airline rebooking offer, in U.S. there is no compensation.
The Middle Atlantic States and the Northeast were slammed by a snowstorm yesterday. You’re entitled to a refund for a canceled flight due to weather. But, your time, meals or hotel costs, etc., while waiting for your next flight are not covered by all airlines.
One of our neighbors, who was over for dinner Saturday night, already had her Sunday morning flight to St. Thomas canceled. She was rebooked to this morning. As I write this column, we have no idea if that flight will be canceled, too.
Right now, the flight is listed as “On time” and the airport here is open for business, but at a drastically reduced schedule. Some of the TSA checkpoints are currently closed. At this point, getting to the airport may be her biggest problem. If the flight leaves on time, if ground transportation remains parallelized, she could miss the flight and lose the money she paid for the ticket, plus she’ll have to buy another ticket, likely much more expensive than the original.
If you miss your flight due to weather problems on the ground there will be no flight refund or compensation, so beware.
Public transportation here is mostly shut down. They say they will try a full schedule today, but the morning will be difficult due to an expected shortage of operators and drivers able to get to work. They’ve already said that rail transportation, including to the airport, will only run a weekend schedule tomorrow.
Roads remain snow-covered here at midnight. Major highways should be plowed and salted by morning, however, getting to those roads will likely be difficult. Uber, Lyft and taxi services will be hard pressed to get around. The time it takes to drive to the airport could easily be doubled or tripled this morning. At least the schools in the area have already announced that they’re closed today, keeping buses and cars with students off the roads.
The U.S. snowstorm over the weekend caused many flight cancellations.
In this area of the Northeast, yesterday’s storm is the worst one we’ve had in a decade. Roads became particularly dangerous Sunday afternoon as sleet fell for hours, coating the snow already on the ground. As a result of the storm, on Sunday, airlines faced flight cancellations statistics not seen since the early days of the COVID pandemic. More than 10,900 flights were canceled, and almost 3,500 were delayed on Sunday, according to the website FlightAware.
Travelers who got stuck in transit have been facing long delays, lots of unplanned overnight hotel stays, and hours stuck on planes. Unfortunately, the chaos isn’t over yet. More delays and cancellations are likely today as airlines try to accommodate travelers whose flights were canceled without further delaying other passengers. So far, it appears that almost 2,000 flights are canceled today. Part of the problem is that for some flights, crews and planes are in the wrong place as the airlines try to recover.
Caught in the snow storm? If your flight was cancelled and you don’t rebook with your airline, you’re entitled to a refund, but not compensation.
If you’ve gotten caught in the storm and your flight was canceled, you’re probably wondering what your airline owes you. There’s no good news here. The airlines don’t owe you anything other than a refund if you don’t rebook with them, as weather cancellations are considered “extraordinary circumstances,” beyond the control of the airlines.
The Trump Administration canceled the Biden Administration’s proposal for compensation for delayed and canceled flights that was similar to the rule in Europe.
In the U.S., unlike in Europe, airlines don’t have to compensate passengers for delayed or canceled flights. They don’t have to compensate you for canceled flights due to weather, mechanical, or crew problems. In Europe, EU261 requires airlines to pay for delays they should have been able to control if the delay exceeds 3 hours. The Biden Administration proposed a rule similar to EU261, but late last year the Trump Administration canceled the Biden Administration’s proposed cancellation rule.
The Trump administration said that the policy “allows airlines to compete on the services and compensation that they provide to passengers rather than imposing new minimum requirements, which would impose significant costs on airlines.” In other words, the Trump Administration is letting the airlines pay passengers little or nothing for delays and cancellations. That’s exactly the compensation they’ve paid to passengers for years.
While the proposed compensation rule was canceled, air travelers are still entitled to a full refund for their canceled flight if they don’t rebook with their airline.
Air travelers are still entitled to a full refund for the unused portion of their ticket if they decline the airline’s rebooking offer for a canceled flight. This is regardless of the reason for the cancellation.
It doesn’t matter if the flight cancellation is due to mechanical difficulties, lack of a flight crew or even weather. Most people take the airline rebookings, as it’s generally the best bet to get to their destination at the earliest time. I did this a few years ago for a flight to Los Angeles. But there’s no compensation for the wasted time, meals while waiting, or hotel costs if your rebooked flight isn’t on the same day as the original.
I had a 6:30 a.m. flight, which was finally canceled four hours later. When the flight crew started emerging from the jetway, they announced the cancellation. Most people queued up at the gate agent and waited up to 90 minutes to rebook. I called the airline and snagged an exit-row seat, within minutes, on the 3:15 p.m. flight. They refunded the miles I had used to upgrade my original flight to first class. Lunch was on me.
If you don’t rebook with your airline, in addition to a full refund for a canceled flight, you’re entitled to a full refund if your flight was “significantly changed.”
Sometimes, the flight offered can be beaten on another airline. Remember that if you don’t accept your airline’s rebooking, you’re entitled to a full refund for the unused portion of your ticket due to the cancellation, regardless of the reason. You’re also entitled to a refund if your flight has “significantly changed.” That includes a change to an earlier departure or later arrival of at least 3 hours for domestic flights and 6 hours for international flights.
The airlines may offer your refund as a travel voucher, but you can refuse it. Then the airline must fully refund the ticket. For credit card-purchased tickets, airlines have seven business days to get you the credit. They have 20 days to use other payment methods.
Again, if you accept the rebooking, there will be no refund and no compensation.
If your flight is canceled for any reason, rebook immediately. You’re competing with everyone on the plane for the next available flight. If you have elite status with the airline, you might receive some compensation. The airline has no obligation to do so. Otherwise, take the cash, not the voucher.
If you do rebook with the airline, be polite throughout the entire rebooking process. Ask for some help in the form of hotel and/or meal vouchers if your rebooked flight(s) mean you’ll be hanging around for a while. The worst that can happen is that you’ll be told “No.”
(Image: Southwest Airlines B737 landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Copyright © 2018 NSL Photography. All Rights Reserved.)
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After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
